General Question: Vista & Recovery Disks

[ArtShapiro]

Suppose I wanted to convert one of my XP Thinkpads to Vista?

I know I can go out, purchase some level of Vista, install it, grab the requisite drivers from the Lenovo driver matrix, install 'em, and go on with my life. Not an overwhelmingly intimidating process unless something happens to go wrong.

Or, as I understand it, I could acquire Vista recovery disks for whatever Thinkpad I was willing to make the sacrificial victim.

But in looking around these Forums, I understand that Lenovo won't sell Vista recovery disks unless the machine originally came with Vista.

My question is why that might be the case. Is it simple contractual obligations between Microsoft and Lenovo? Or are the recovery disks pre-activated, meaning that M$ would not be earning any revenue from such an installation? If they're not pre-activated, meaning one would (somehow) purchase a license and key from M$, I don't understand the restriction in question.

Clarifications welcome!

Art

[Wiz]

I tried the recovery a couple of times and did not have to enter any product key manually so as far as i understand it must be pre-activated. Unless i'm wrong this is the common way to do this for the manufacturer's. You could buy a standard Windows Vista OEM (any edition) which is cheaper then the retail to install on your computer, but the license belongs to the computer and not the owner so in case you sell the computer you no longer have a valid Vista license. In that case i guess you buy a new PC with Vista included anyway.
It's a bit more work then the Lenovo recovery since you have to install all the drivers and stuff like that, but a lot of people prefer this method anyway because the standard Lenovo OS installation contains to much stuff they don't want/need anyway.

[GomJabbar]

A Lenovo Vista recovery disc will not work on older ThinkPads even though those ThinkPads will run Vista.

MS Vista recovery disks

[ArtShapiro]

A Lenovo Vista recovery disc will not work on older ThinkPads even though those ThinkPads will run Vista.

MS Vista recovery disks

Wow - that's mind-boggling. As I'd probably pick my X61 or my T61, it sounds as if the only workable process is a standard Windows installation followed by installation of the appropriate Lenovo drivers one-at-a-time. Thanks for the info.

Art